When Steve Campanella was 14 and working at Dom’s Market, a Congers institution since 1972, he had no idea that many years later he’d eventually own the whole store — and the storefront next to it.

“We’ve all been here too long,” jokes Campanella, who purchased the butcher shop in 1995 and expanded soon after. Campanella has diversified the selection and services to offer catering, prepared foods, and a gourmet market that includes imported pastas, sauces, seasonings, and even fresh produce.

At the front of the store, soda coolers and bins of Deep River chips and I.M. Good licorice in numerous flavors tempt shoppers. A refrigerated case features gourmet sausage and cheese, including balls of fresh mozzarella.

Shelves upon shelves of imported pastas, peppers, olives, beans, fancy salts, dips, spreads, dressings and crackers lead to another cooler full of fresh produce and bagged salads.

A freezer contains exotic sausages (including rabbit and wild boar), fresh ravioli, and frozen meatballs made on the premises.

A refrigerator on another wall contains more meatballs and a large selection of prepared foods including short ribs, marinated chicken, lasagna, sauces and soups.

“Everybody’s on the run so you have to have it all ready for them today,” says Campanella of the shop’s growing focus on prepared foods. Displays of rubs from Lysander’s and sauces from Christian Potier are your ticket to making gourmet meals at home even easier.

I asked Campanella what advantages a butcher shop holds over simply picking up meat at a regular grocery store. “Definitely the special cuts, and you get a better grade of meat,” says Steve. “It’s also all the service — we cut it, freezer wrap it, deliver it. You have your steady customers who just get the same items constantly, and it’s there for them every week.”

Campanella gets most of his meat from the famed Hunt’s Point market and specializes in harder-to-find items: wild game, free-range grass-fed beef, free-range poultry and special cuts of higher-grade meat that aren’t widely available elsewhere.

Catering has expanded to become the second largest element of Steve’s business. In addition to a huge selection of sandwiches and deli salads, the extensive catering menu includes cold and hot appetizers and platters, soups, salads, pasta, meat and seafood entrees, and even fully cooked roasts for holidays.

“I enjoy what I do, and I enjoy the customers — you get to know everybody personally, you get to know their kids — it makes it a nice atmosphere,” says Campanella of being his neighborhood’s longtime butcher. “I’ve seen kids grow up and get married — I feel like I’m 90!”